Waxworks

Waxworks is another horror adventure from Horrorsoft for the Atari ST, this time built on an unconventional structure of five separate stories, each different in period and genre, set among the figures of a wax museum, through which the player is transported directly into the action of each horror scene via a magic mirror. Each episode, from Victorian London through an Egyptian tomb to a Western setting and other dark corners, offers its own puzzles, enemies, and atmosphere, giving the game a variety unusual for adventures of the time and forcing the player to constantly adapt their tactics to the new setting.

The gameplay combines classic point-and-click icon-based controls with a more realistic first-person combat system and inventory puzzles typical of Horrorsoft, with character death remaining a constant risk in every episode that the player must reckon with. On the Atari ST the game offered detailed, darkly stylized graphics and atmospheric sound, though the platform's hardware limitations were noticeably felt in the loading speed of individual locations and the smoothness of animations compared to more powerful platforms like the Amiga. The transitions between the individual wax scenes also gave the game a natural chapter structure that the player could work through in any order and return to unfinished stories at will.

Waxworks was praised in the contemporary press for the originality of its episodic structure and its dark, tightly-knit atmosphere, but despite its variety it remained a typically difficult and at times merciless horror adventure with numerous sudden deaths that gave the player no second chance. Today it is regarded as one of the last notable titles of the genre from Horrorsoft's stable and is remembered as an unconventional, atmospheric foray into horror adventure with RPG elements, rather than as a mainstream classic accessible to a wide audience.

Why play it: For its unconventional, atmospheric episodic structure of horror adventure with RPG elements - but expect plenty of sudden deaths with no second chance.